Studies performed during the past year showed that: a) mother-cats could be induced to eat inappropriate food (INF) such as banana slices or mashed potatoes in the presence of meat pellets, when eating INF was rewarded with electrical stimulation within the hypothalamus while eating meat pellets was not; b) weanling kittens which accompained their mother during the session, imitated her inappropriate food preference and also ate INF; c) the kittens which ate INF with the mother continued to eat INF after weaning in the absence of the mother. The plans for the next year include research on: 1) the role of taste and smell of food in the imitation of mother by kittens, 2) the upper limit of the "critical" period of age in kittens when they are more inclined to imitate their mother in food preference than in other periods, 3) the persistence of inappropriate food preference after weaning, and 4) the development of food preference in kittens in the absence of the mother (control observations).